Horse Racing in 1993

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United States and Canada

Suspense surrounded the voting for the 1993 horse of the year and also for virtually all of the divisional champions as many outstanding performers emerged but few horses dominated during an eventful season of competition. All of the champion Thoroughbreds of 1993, selected by ballot among representatives of the Thoroughbred Racing Association, Daily Racing Form, and the National Turf Writers Association, were to be honoured at the Eclipse Awards dinner in New Orleans, La., on Feb. 4, 1994.

Several strong horse of the year candidates--Kotashaan, Lure, and Star of Cozzene--came from the ranks of turf racing. The French-bred Kotashaan captured six of his nine starts in the United States while competing exclusively over the grass. His victories included the Breeders’ Cup Turf and four other Grade I stakes, bringing his 1993 earnings to $1,984,100. Star of Cozzene won 6 of his 11 starts on the turf, including the Arlington Million and the Man o’ War. He also finished second four times and earned $1,620,744 for the year. Lure gained six wins in eight grass-course starts and $1,212,323 in earnings. His biggest accomplishment was winning the Breeders’ Cup Mile for the second straight year.

Both Kotashaan and Star of Cozzene were sold to Japanese owners late in the year. On November 28 the two horses met in the Japan Cup, a 1 1/2-mi event, in which Kotashaan finished second after jockey Kent Desormeaux misjudged the finish line. Star of Cozzene ran fifth.

The champion two-year-old colt would be decided between Dehere and Brocco. Dehere won four straight stakes, including the Hopeful and Champagne, before finishing a disappointing eighth to Brocco in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, a race in which Dehere hemorrhaged. Brocco won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile by a commanding five lengths but then lost to Valiant Nature in the Hollywood Futurity in his final start of the year.

The three-year-old-colt division was headed by Triple Crown race winners Sea Hero, which captured the Kentucky Derby; Prairie Bayou, champion of the Preakness; and Colonial Affair, which won the Belmont. Sea Hero was awarded the $1 million Triple Crown bonus, making him the leading money-winning Thoroughbred of 1993, with earnings of $2,484,190. His only other win in nine starts during the year was the Travers, and he thus became the first colt in more than half a century to win that race and the Kentucky Derby.

The ill-fated colt Prairie Bayou established his class early in the season with several stakes wins and then finished second to Sea Hero in the Kentucky Derby. He went on to post an impressive victory in the Preakness before going on to the Belmont and suffering a fatal injury. He had won five of his eight starts and more than $1.4 million.

Colonial Affair, the Belmont winner ridden by Julie Krone (see BIOGRAPHIES), finished second to Miner’s Mark in the Jockey Club Gold Cup later in the year. Miner’s Mark, which defeated older horses in the Gold Cup, became a contender for championship honours with the win.

The battle for the champion older horse of 1993 was between Devil His Due and Bertrando. Devil His Due, a four-year-old, won four major handicaps from March to July, including the Gulfstream Park Handicap, the Pimlico Special, and the Suburban, earning just under $2 million. He then lost five straight races. Bertrando, runner-up in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, was the second leading money-winning Thoroughbred of 1993, with earnings of $2,227,800. His three wins in nine starts included the Woodward, in which he galloped home by 13 1/2 lengths, and the Pacific Classic.

The biggest upset in Breeders’ Cup history took place on November 6 at Santa Anita when the five-year-old Arcangues scored a two-length victory in the $3 million Classic at odds of 133-1. It was his only start in the U.S. in 1993 and his first race over the dirt.

The champion three-year-old filly appeared destined to be decided between Sky Beauty, which dominated competition on the East Coast, and Hollywood Wildcat, her West Coast counterpart. Sky Beauty won the New York filly Triple Crown (Acorn, Mother Goose, and Coaching Club American Oaks) and then captured the Alabama for her fifth win in six starts. Hollywood Wildcat, winner of several major stakes in California, scored her biggest claim to the award in her division when she defeated older champion Paseana by a nose in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, a race in which Sky Beauty finished fifth.

Leaders in the two-year-old-filly division included Sardula, winner of the Hollywood Starlet, and Phone Chatter, which defeated Sardula by a head after a stretch-long chase in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. By virtue of her three major-stakes wins during the year, including the Spinster, Paseana was expected to repeat as champion older mare in spite of her loss in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff.

Honours for champion turf female were clinched by Flawlessly for the second straight year. Her four wins in five starts included a win in the Matriarch Stakes for the third straight year.

Even though Meafara finished second in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint for the second consecutive year, she did win four of eight starts and seemed to be the leader of the competition for champion sprinter of 1993.

Mike E. Smith, with more than $13 million and a record 61 major stakes victories, led all the nation’s jockeys in purse winnings in 1993, while Russell Baze emerged the leader in races won for the second straight year. Robert Frankel topped the nation’s trainers in purse winnings, dethroning perennial champion D. Wayne Lukas, who had won the honour for 10 straight seasons.

Peteski, winner of the Canadian Triple Crown and conqueror of some of the finest American-based horses of 1993 in the Molson Export Million Stakes, was named Canada’s horse of the year. He also won a Sovereign Award as Canada’s champion three-year-old male.

For the second straight year, the English Derby winner was sold to a Japanese breeder before the end of the season. Commander in Chief, which also won the Irish Derby, followed the 1992 English Derby winner, Dr. Devious, to Japan. The Japanese also bought the Italian Derby winner, White Muzzle. And although they failed to buy the Prix du Jockey-Club (French Derby) winner, Hernando, that colt’s owner, Stavros Niarchos, did accept their offer for his top three-year-old miler, Kingmambo, winner of two major stakes races in France and another in England.

Opera House, conqueror of White Muzzle and Commander in Chief by 1 1/2 lengths and a short head in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes at Ascot in July, was another that was to begin his stud career in Japan in 1994. Sheikh Muhammad, who raced Opera House, had also leased his 1989 Prix du Jockey-Club and Irish Derby winner, Old Vic, to a Japanese stud. But that arrangement was for one year only.

All this activity was taking place at a time when business in Japan was entering a recession. But that nation’s Thoroughbred racing and breeding industries were responding to pressure, particularly from the United States, to offer greater opportunities to foreign-bred horses. Japanese racing was the richest in the world in 1993, and its ruling body, the Japan Racing Association, was determined to be ready to face an influx of horses from all the principal breeding nations. For that reason, it was encouraging Japanese breeders to purchase many of the world’s best horses.

The abiding memory from the season in Britain was sure to be the two false starts for the Grand National steeplechase. Only 9 of the 39 horses responded to signals of the second false start. The remainder set off and, although many riders realized the problem and pulled up at halfway, 12 continued on the second circuit and 7 completed the course. The race was declared void, and more than £60 million (about $90 million) had to be returned to backers.

Commander in Chief did not reappear after his Ascot defeat, but Opera House and White Muzzle met again in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp on October 3. They appeared to have the race between them until Urban Sea, a 37-1 long shot, swept past them during the final furlong. Urban Sea, a filly whose owners were from Hong Kong and Taiwan, beat White Muzzle by a neck. Opera House was half a length farther back in third, and the English Oaks winner, Intrepidity, stayed on to finish fourth in a field of 23.

Urban Sea, which was attempting the distance (1 1/2 mi) for the first time, was a daughter of the Kentucky-based Miswaki, a horse that competed at much shorter distances but was also responsible for Misil, the best horse seen in Italy for some years. Misil won the Gran Premio del Jockey Club (1 1/2 mi) two weeks after finishing an unlucky seventh in the Arc. He was also a close second to Opera House in the Eclipse Stakes and to the surprising Breeders’ Cup Classic winner, Arcangues, in the Prix d’Ispahan. By November Misil, too, was in Japanese ownership.

The human star of European racing was undoubtedly André Fabre, whose Chantilly stable housed the winners of 34 of the 107 Group I race winners in France, including Arcangues. Fabre also won the English Two Thousand Guineas with Zafonic, the English Oaks with Intrepidity, the Irish Oaks with Wemyss Bight, and the Turf Classic with Apple Tree.

Vintage Crop wrote a new chapter in the history of international racing when he won the Melbourne Cup by three lengths from Te Akau Nick on November 3. Also winner of the Irish St. Leger, the seven-year-old gelding was the first horse trained in the Northern Hemisphere to win Australia’s greatest race.

Harness Racing

In winning a $75,000 leg of the Driscoll Series at the Meadowlands in New Jersey in June, four-year-old pacing gelding Staying Together became harness racing’s fastest race miler. His 1 min 48.4 sec broke the previous record of 1 min 49.4 sec set in 1992 at the Meadowlands by Artsplace and equaled the world’s fastest time-trial clocking set by Matt’s Scooter as a three-year-old in 1988. Staying Together, trained by Robert McIntosh and regularly driven by William O’Donnell for Canadian owner Robert Hamather, won the $205,000 Driscoll final in 1 min 49.4 sec. He appeared to have assured himself of Horse of the Year honours when in October he won the $396,810 Breeders Crown for aged pacers and then completed his campaign by winning the $200,000 Fraser Memorial at Northlands Park in Edmonton, Alta. His 21 victories in 26 starts gave the son of Panorama earnings of just over $1.1 million in 1993.

In August Cambest, a five-year-old son of Cam Fella, became the fastest harness horse of all time with an electrifying 1-min 46.2-sec time trial at Springfield, Ill. William O’Donnell drove the pacer for trainer Fred Grant to demolish the 1-min 48.4-sec record held jointly by Matt’s Scooter and Staying Together.

Presidential Ball established an all-age world record on a 5/8-mi track when Jack Moiseyev guided the three-year-old son of Cam Fella to win the $197,472 final of the Miller Memorial at Rosecroft Raceway in Maryland in 1 min 50.6 sec in May. Trained by Bill Robinson for Canadian owner Tony Chiaravalle, Presidential Ball also won the $1 million North America Cup at Greenwood Raceway in Toronto in a track-record 1 min 51 sec and the $1 million Meadowlands Pace at the Meadowlands in 1 min 50 sec. Later the same month, Presidential Ball suffered only his second defeat of the year when archrival Life Sign (driven by John Campbell) won the $301,760 final of the Art Rooney Memorial at Yonkers Raceway, N.Y., in 1 min 52.2 sec on a half-mile track, with Riyadh nosing Presidential Ball out of second.

At Delaware, Ohio, in September, Life Sign turned in the performance of his career to win the coveted Little Brown Jug. Driven brilliantly by Campbell, he prevailed in back-to-back heats of 1 min 52 sec (a world record) over a track dulled by afternoon showers. The son of Abercrombie completed his year by winning the $300,000 Breeders Crown for three-year-old pacing colts at Freehold, N.J., in October, pushing his career earnings past $1.8 million.

Driven by Ron Pierce, the three-year-old colt American Winner in August at the Meadowlands won the $1 million Hambletonian with a 1-min 53.2-sec elimination-heat victory before romping home over archrival Pine Chip in the final with a 1-min 53.4-sec clocking. The time was a world record for two heats by a three-year-old trotter, and the first effort represented the fastest-ever Hambletonian heat win. Soon afterward, American Winner finished first in a $92,500 division of the Zweig Memorial at Syracuse, N.Y., in 1 min 52.6 sec, the second fastest trotting race mile of all time, behind Mack Lobell’s 1 min 52.2 sec at Springfield in 1987. Attempting to become the first trotting Triple Crown winner since his sire, Super Bowl, in 1972, American Winner lost to Pine Chip in the Kentucky Futurity after breaking stride repeatedly in the second heat. Pine Chip had won the $532,000 World Trotting Derby at Du Quoin, Ill., in straight heats in September and in October added the $300,000 Breeders Crown three-year-old trot.

Queen L, a seven-year-old mare, wheeled 17 rivals in the final stage to win the Prix d’Amerique over 1 5/8 mi at Vincennes, France, in January. The 1993 Elitlopp, run at Solvalla, Sweden, in June, was won by Sea Cove, a seven-year-old stallion owned and trained in Germany and bred in Canada.

New Zealand-bred seven-year-old gelding Franco Tiger, trained in Victoria by Glenn Tippet for Eric Anderson, was a clear-cut winner of the 1992-93 Inter-Dominion Grand Circuit title, winning four of the eight events. The $NZ 300,000 New Zealand Cup, run November 9 at Addington, Christchurch, was won by Chokin, a five-year-old pacer recording his 19th win in 26 starts.